Do you feel like football fans are racist toward you? CAM NEWTON: “It’s not racism. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.”

So if it’s not that, what is it, do you think? “I’ll let you be the judge. I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like some people have certain beliefs, and I have my own belief, and we can agree to disagree on certain things. But this is what makes sports so amazing, that we can start a discussion around a table, in the newspaper, in the magazines, that will get people’s attention. And that’s what sports does.”

In January, right before the Super Bowl, you said: “I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to.” “I don’t want this to be about race, because it’s not. It’s not. Like, we’re beyond that. As a nation.”

You really think so? “Yeah. I mean, you bring it to people’s attention. But after that, that’s it.”

That’s a pretty clear-headed and rational response, especially since I’m sure it still burns him to have to think about that day. Imagine people repeatedly asking you about when you were at your worst, crystallized into history for all to see as a public spectacle.

Of course, this is 2016 and rational responses aren’t cool…

I say all this to say that Cam Newton might genuinely believe racism is over. The sort of thing happens often with token Black people.